American Vampire #27Review

Hidden away in issue #27 of American Vampire are some great mythos-busting hints about the nature of vampires in Scott Snyder’s world. It’s impressive that these sorts of things have been seeded throughout the series in the most subtle of places – for instance, an in-between story arc featuring a side character like Calvin Poole. While it’s not as strong as part 1 of The Nocturnes, Snyder gives some nice insight into Cal’s character while setting up what’s to come for Pearl and Henry, right alongside deepening the rabbit hole.

This issue focuses mostly on action, surprisingly, but does have its fair share of “smaller” moments that really make the book. For instance, a brief two-page hallucination inside of Cal’s mind is one of the most devastating and impactful scenes throughout all of American Vampire, based solely on the sheer imagery that Snyder scripts. Unfortunately, issue #27 suffers from artistic shortcomings that leave the book with less punch than the script intended.

Taking over on art from Roger Cruz is Riccardo Burchielli – a switch that is initially unnoticeable, until you begin to realize little details missing that take away from the storytelling. A lack of detail in facial expressions, the excessive use of shadow, and many backgrounds that fall short all detract from the otherwise solid story. Even the issue’s most precious moment – the aforementioned hallucination – suffers because Burchielli finds no way to distinguish it as such. On first read, it was a jarring transition that interrupted the pace of the book. A different stylistic approach or even a change in the color palette from Dave McCaig would have been appreciated to distinguish this sequence from the rest. While the art is serviceable in most respects, it simply doesn’t reach the high bar that this series has set for itself.

Ultimately, Snyder’s writing and devotion to expanding the mythos and cast wins out, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t already looking past this issue for the start of the next big arc and the return of Rafael Albuquerque.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He will love Star Wars until the end of his days.